LEMIEUX HAS STAKE IN FUTURE AVALANCHE PRACTICE FACILITY

Family Golf Centers, a public company which Avalanche
RW Claude Lemieux has a business stake in, is expected to
announce soon an exclusive deal for the Avalanche's
permanent practice home, starting next season, according to
Adrian Dater of the DENVER POST. The center will have two
rinks, both available to the Avs, a nine-hole golf course,
restaurants and other entertainment options. Lemieux: "We
have eight such facilities in use right now, and plan to
have 20 by the end of the year" (DENVER POST, 2/27).
WHILE IN DENVER: Ascent Entertainment CEO Charlie Lyons
said yesterday that the Nuggets are not for sale, but the
POST's Mike Monroe asks, "Why would Lyons not want to rid
himself, and Ascent, of a team that has become the NBA's
worst? ... Somehow, Lyons still believes he can fix things,
for his team and for his company. Pro basketball fans in
Denver appear to have no choice but to hope he is right"
(DENVER POST, 2/27). In Philadelphia, Gwen Florio writes
the Nuggets situation is "[s]o bad that there are empty
seats at courtside. So bad that a scalper hawked second-row
seats for $20 apiece -- and got no takers" (INQUIRER, 2/27).